While “Clash of the Titans” didn’t quite cleave off the head of Medusa and turn the remainder of the box-office competition into stone, director Louis Leterrier’s swords-and-sandals epic nonetheless claimed first place in theaters this weekend with an impressive $61.4 million haul, plus an additional $3 million earned from Thursday’s midnight showings and $44.2 million gleaned from foreign markets.

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The action-adventure film managed its $108.2 million result despite poor critical reception, indicating that the star power of “Avatar” leading man Sam Worthington and the movie’s retroactive 3-D conversion were key contributors to the movie’s success. It should be noted that Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” stayed in first place for three straight weeks despite negative reactions from critics.

“Clash of the Titans” earned more than twice as much as “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?,” which ended the weekend in second place. Perry’s latest managed the second-best result of the director/writer/actor’s entire career, just behind the $41 million opening for “Madea Goes to Jail” in February 2009.

Of the weekend’s other major new releases, Miley Cyrus’ “The Last Song” opened in fourth place with $16.2 million. The Nicolas Sparks adaptation has earned $25.6 million since opening last Wednesday, leading to a $5.6 million profit past the film’s production budget.

Holdovers “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Alice in Wonderland” stayed in the top five with a $29.2 million bronze medal and an $8.3 million fifth-place finish, respectively. Last week’s “Hot Tub Time Machine” succumbed to the might of director Tim Burton’s “Wonderland” by a margin of $267,000.

“Clash of the Titans” enjoyed the weekend’s best per-screen average at $16,256, but “Breaking Upwards” experienced a fantastic showing of $15,300 in only one nationwide theatrical appearance. Limited openings for “The Greatest,” “Don McKay” and “The Thorn in the Heart” all opened outside of the weekend’s top 25 performances.

Upcoming Releases

The lone wide release of next weekend is “Date Night,” the romantic comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey and featuring appearances by Mark Wahlberg and James Franco. “The Runaways,” starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, will expand by 200 theaters.